According to a report by Bloomberg, which cites unnamed sources close to Microsoft's board, the selection committee -- which includes top shareholder, company cofounder, former CEO, and embattled current chairman Bill Gates -- is moving aggressively to screen candidates and complete the selection process by the end of 2013.

Mr. Gates is reportedly tapping Charles Giancarlo, a managing director at Silver Lake -- a private-equity firm (the less liquid sibling of the hedge fund) -- to help with selection process. Mr. Gates has close ties to Silver Lake, as one of their former top investors. Mr. Giancarlo was a former chief executive at Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO), helping to steer its growth.

This will only be Microsoft third CEO; the previous two were Steve Ballmer and the original founder and CEO Bill Gates.

Bloomberg's sources indicated that Microsoft's selection panel only wants to reach a conclusive decision by the year's end. It may still take longer for the new CEO to arrive, depending on whom they pick.

If Microsoft picks Mr. Donahoe or Mr. Mulally, it will have to work with their current employer to negotiate when the pick will leave their current company. A Ford spokesman commented, "Alan continues to focus on executing the One Ford plan, and we don’t engage in speculation."

Microsoft refused to comment on the Bloomberg report.

Microsoft's new CEO must fix Windows 8 -- or its image, at least. [Image Source: WindowsForum.eu]

Please let it be Elop. He may not be the most exciting person on earth, but he is a real class act who can be a shark when he needs to be. After the crazyness of Balmer why not take the chill pill of Elop?

Mulally would also be a great pick, but he has already stated twice that he is not interested in leaving Ford. While I am sure that he has his price that would convince him otherwise, I am also fairly sure that MS would not be willing to pay it.

Remember, CEOs are the people who keep divisions running. It is typically the board who picks the direction the company runs in, and the engineers and divisions which figure out how to get there. The CEO is the one who coordinates these efforts, makes critical decisions when there are multiple possibilities to pursue, and keeps up relations with media and other companies.

Why? What exactly has the skype team accomplished? Skype was supposed to be integrated into Outlook and other MS products as a new communications backbone. They have completely failed in that mission, while delivering a product that is hardly any better than when it was first acquired.Not saying that he should be fired or anything, but the idea that he should be moved up seems like an odd choice.

I'd go with Elop. The guy is obviously not afraid to break some taboos. Microsoft doesn't need to do something so drastic as getting out of their traditional line of business, of course. Still, it really has to get out of this mindset that everything they do must be Windows-related. Words are already going around that Microsoft executives want to massively trim Nokia's product line. The deal hasn't even closed yet and they're talking about gutting what they just bought. It's going be aQuantive all over again unless someone get in there and stop the stupid.

In case of Nokia, getting out of the hardware business is the right thing without a doubt. While its patent portfolio generates over half a billion of steady income, the hardware division bleeds it all away. Making phones also means exposure to countersuits in patent litigation. For these reasons, the market was effectively valuing Nokia's hardware business at somewhere around negative one billion dollar. Not taking the money and run would be insane.

Microsoft, on the other hand, can afford to let mobile serve as a loss leader for their other lines of business.